GIANTS NOTEBOOK / Bonds is determined to keep trainer around

2004-02-25 04:00:00 PDT Scottsdale, Ariz. -- Barry Bonds could be heading for a showdown with Major League Baseball over clubhouse access for one of his personal trainers, Harvey Shields, who oversees the left fielder's stretching.

Bonds is adamant about having Shields with him at the ballpark every day, saying Monday, "I believe Harvey will always be with me. That's stretching. I've got to get ready for games. People need to understand that our body is our machine. This is how we make a living. If you have a car and run out of oil, you've got to go out and get oil.

"Stretching and my training is part of taking care of this machine. It takes care of my family, takes care of me and I'm going to do what I need to do to take care of my machine.

"It's the right thing to do, not the wrong thing to do."

That might not fly with the commissioner's office, which is planning a crackdown on personal trainers in the wake of the BALCO scandal. MLB actually banned personal trainers from clubhouses two years ago but left enforcement to the clubs and looked the other way when exceptions were made, particularly for star players.

"There were rules, but Major League Baseball was aware of who was in our clubhouse and who wasn't," general manager Brian Sabean said last week. "It would be naive to think that they weren't. We went to the playoffs the last two years and they provide security for that."

Now, though, MLB's security office will begin enforcing the rules. Baseball customarily employs security consultants in each city, often off-duty police officers, and they will visit clubhouses more frequently to check on who is getting inside. If Bonds wants Shields to oversee his stretching on the field rather than in the clubhouse, that won't fly either under the new guidelines, which are designed to keep personal trainers out of the picture entirely.

The Giants could ensure Shields' access by hiring him as a trainer, which is not likely.

Bonds fourth?: Manager Felipe Alou, who used more lineups than the New York Police Department last season, said earlier this month he was thinking about moving Bonds up a slot from cleanup to third. Now he is not so sure. On Monday he scribbled a lineup that had Michael Tucker batting third and said, "It looks like Barry fits better batting fourth."

But don't bank on that either.

"It might last one day. You know how I am," Alou said. "That's one of my faults. I keep changing lineups."

Briefly: The Giants will hold their first full-squad workout today with an unprecedented 67 players in camp because the Giants did not hold their customary winter minicamp for prospects. The huge crowd has forced the staff to use more fields. For instance, third-base coach Gene Glynn keeps all the outfielders at Scottsdale Stadium to work on defense while the rest of the team goes to Indian School Park for regular practice. ... Ruben Rivera, whose nutty dash around the bases last year has become legend, is not around this year. "Maybe he's taking his baserunning expertise to another camp," Alou said.